It’s our favorite day of the year, Earth Day! Today’s blog will be dedicated to all things Earth Day and hopefully you can learn a thing or two about this wonderful day!
Origin of Earth Day
Even before the first Earth Day, Americans knew the environment was being damaged by America’s heavy industrialization and though there were many efforts by the government to do something about the weakening environment, most Americans didn’t take the idea of climate change seriously. That was until 1962 when author Rachel Carson published her book, Silent Spring. This New York Times bestseller brought to light the environmental effects of pesticides and of the environment’s deterioration due to industrialization. The famous book was sold in many countries and brought worldwide public awareness to the adverse effects of industrialization. After the publication of Silent Spring many people began to develop an environmental consciousness, but the problem was still not being dealt with.
In 1969, however, the Oil Spill in Santa Barbara, California showed just how quickly environmental action had to happen. Though most of the country was focused on the war efforts in Vietnam, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin took it upon himself to raise awareness for the environment. The original idea for Earth Day was not actually a day to raise awareness for environmental protection, but actually a regular day where there would be teach-ins across college campuses showing the effects of pollution. Nelson worked together with House Rep Pete McCloskey of California to roll out his plan for this national college teach-in. The reason April 22 was chosen as the date was because it fell between Spring Break and college finals allowing for maximized student participation.
As information on this country wide teach-in started to spread, more and more organizations, schools, and communities wanted to participate in this day dedicated to climate awareness. The huge country wide support over Nelson’s efforts led to April 22 being known as Earth Day. On April 22, 1970, millions of Americans took to the streets to speak out against decades of industrial pollution of the environment.
The creation of Earth Day not only served as a voice to people’s environmental consciousness, but it also made the government look into environmental change as well. Shortly after the first Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency was formed and many environmental laws were passed. These laws not only helped the environment, but helped human’s health, too.
In 2009, the UN recognized April 22 as International Mother Earth Day and in 2016, April 22 was the date the Paris Agreement was signed into action in New York. To this day April 22 has a lot of relevance and influence on Government plans involving the environment and our Earth.
Why Earth Day is Important
Earth Day is not only important in raising awareness for environmental protection, but to also show how much we can harm our environment through poor industrial and social practices. By celebrating Earth Day, we not only show how much we care for our Earth, but also why we need to keep it clean for future generations. Over the years, Earth Day has helped to pass new laws that protect our environment because we show how much we care for our Earth. More importantly, Earth Day is not just for Americans. Earth Day is one of the few annual events that is celebrated worldwide, no matter religion, social status, race, or gender. We all live on this one Earth and on Earth Day we show just how much we care for our Planet.
Now more than ever, Earth Day has even more significance because our Planet can only hold off Climate Change for so long. We are quickly approaching the Earth’s breaking point and change has to be made now.
Statistics of Earth Day
So we celebrate Earth Day, but what change is actually made on this day. How many people participate and does it really help raise awareness and help our environment. For starters, approximately 1 billion people mobilize worldwide to make change on Earth Day. That’s 13% of the world population. On Earth Day, air pollution levels go down almost 10% largely due to people being more conscious of the effect they are having on the environment. But it’s not just the day itself that is important, how has Earth Day influenced environmental changes since 1970. One of Earth Day’s main goals was to prevent the world from warming 2℃(3.6℉) and keep the warming level at 1.5℃(2.5℉) by the end of the 2000 century. So far we are achieving that goal but there is still a long, long way to go.
What you Can do to Celebrate
Here is a list of 10 things you can do to celebrate Earth Day!
- Try not to ride in your car, take your bike or walk to places that are not too far away
- Take showers, not baths
- Turn the tap off when your not using it(brushing)
- Try to throw as little out in the garbage
- Recycle as much as you can
- Pick-up any litter
- Plant some flowers
- Unplug from your devices and conserve energy
- Try to step outside and enjoy nature
- There are many events and live streams that you can join dedicated to Earth Day – These streams will have celebrities and important public figures – https://youtu.be/kICYfJ0qdrE – Earth Day Live Stream
More importantly, think about how you can implement these patterns into your daily lifestyle. Though these small changes will have a big effect if everyone does them one day a year, they will have an even bigger effect if everyone could do it every day a year.
Happy Earth Day!