Celebrate Earth Day The Right Way

Although the Earth has more than seven billion people and 30 million different animal species, before the late 1970s, Earth Day wasn’t recognized yearly.

In 1969 an oil spill occurred in Santa Barbara, California, and 3 million gallons of crude oil spewed into the ocean. The oil spill endangered and killed the lives of thousands of regional and aquatic animals. 

After witnessing the consequences of the oil spill, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson founded an environmental teach-in day on April 22, 1970. On that day, the public would educate themselves about the environment and bring environmental causes to the nation’s attention. 

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the creation of the event caused 20 million Americans from diverse cities to protest about the lack of government care for the environment and demanded alternative methods to provide an environmentally sustainable future.

That led governments to take environment-focused actions like instituting The Clean Air, Clean Water and the Endangered Species Acts.

Now that the government has done its part, the rest is up to us. 

Choose to invest in recyclable products. This will motivate companies to continue the same path and reduce their production of harmful materials like non-biodegradable plastic.

Although cars may be faster, they emit carbon monoxide into the environment which deprives vital body organs of oxygen and may cause people to lose consciousness or even suffocate. So, if possible choose to ride a bike or walk to your destination. 

Take a reusable shopping bag when going to the market, because if the plastic industries begin to see a decrease in plastic dependency, they will most likely reduce the amount of its production.

Many stores encourage their customers to return the bags to a participating store to be recycled. Unfortunately, only 1% of plastic bags are returned for recycling in the United States, which is scary considering that the country has a population of 328.24 million people. So if you don’t have reusable shopping bags and need to use plastic bags, make sure you return them.

By furthering education about the global crises, people will know what their actions are causing in the environment and look for alternative ways to value natural resources. 

Taking part in programs that host garden or beach cleanup events, also helps people witness firsthand the positive impact their actions have on the environment.

Earth Day may be an annual event, but Earth exists every day. Our home and future generations depend on us.

Create change today, Mother Nature is calling.