What Is Earth Day?
The earth is in a crisis. It is not economical. It has nothing to do with bad mortgages, loans, or the failing stock market. The earth is in trouble environmentally. Pollution levels are at an all time high. Global warming is causing the polar ice to melt, creating havoc for many animals indigenous to that region. The waters of the world are becoming toxic and landfills are taking over suburban areas. It is no wonder that people are finally “going green” and becoming environmentally conscious. There is much more awareness today about the problem and there are charities and organizations that hold events to raise this awareness.
Earth Day is an annual event to celebrate our world and honor its beauty. Its purpose is to make more people aware of the environmental problems our world faces and what we can do to help. There are over 100 countries around the world that celebrate this special day and each one has events and activities for everyone to enjoy. If you have never celebrated Earth Day, you may be wondering what all it involves. What kind of activities can you participate in? What are some Earth Day fun facts? If you want to get in on the celebrations, here are some things you need to know.
History of Earth Day
Earth Day got its start back in 1970. Ten years earlier, the population’s concern over the environment was practically non-existent. Factories were dumping their waste into the rivers and streams which fed into the oceans. Except for maybe bottles, there was no type of recycling system available. This meant that all trash got dumped into the landfills and sat there without decomposing. And automobiles were a booming business that went unchecked. Then in 1969 at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.SW. Senator Gaylord Nelson announced plans for a one day celebration and demonstration about the environment. He was one of the first to get the issue of the environment out into the open and onto the political agenda.
April 22, 1970 was the day chosen for the first official Earth Day. It struck a cord with college students and other activists that were already involved in environmental issues. For the first celebration, more than 20 million people in the U.S. took part. Earth Day has since continued and has grown stronger through the years. The celebration helped to bring the environment to the forefront of global issues. There were several years after the initial founding when enthusiasm for the event faded. While it was still celebrated, it did not match the original appeal.
In 1990, Earth Day reappeared on the public radar. With one of the original organizers at the helm, Earth Day reached international levels. With the support of celebrities and politicians who used it in their political platform, public awareness became more widespread. Since then Earth Day has been a reminder of why we need to help clean up our environment and promote responsible waste management.
Earth Day Activities
There are Earth Day activities planned in just about every major city in the U.S. and other countries across the world. Most of them involve some sort of project for cleaning up areas that are not environmentally healthy. You can help out by volunteering to clean up the park, your neighborhood, or a local area in your city. You can also plants trees or do some landscaping to promote growth and to make a place simply look better. If you live near the ocean, you can go along the shoreline and pick up garbage that has floated ashore.
Another way to celebrate is to go to a discussion or seminar on how to live ‘greener’. You can educate yourself on recycling, on energy conservation as it applies to your home, alternative fuels, and organic farming.
Even if you cannot make it to a planned event, there are ways to celebrate Earth Day on your own. Start a recycling bin in your home. Teach your kids to separate items into the appropriate boxes. You can switch out the light bulbs in your house to the more energy efficient bulbs. You can also get online and check out several different websites that offer projects you can download including offering environmental information.
Earth Day Lesson Plans For Teachers
There are numerous lesson plans and activities that teachers can use to help educate their students about this international celebrated day. You can go online to several teacher resource sites and download projects, activities, worksheets, and other educational materials to hand out. Some activities you can try out are planting seedlings, making your own recycled paper, create artwork with Earth Day as the theme, and talk about the impact of the rain forest. For two great sources on the web, check out Lessonplanspage.com and Education-world.com for more activities.
Some Earth Day Quotes
Here are some great quotes about the earth and the environment that are appropriate for Earth Day celebrations.
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
- Cree Indian Proverb
“I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.”
- A Chieftain from Nigeria
“Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”
- Francis Bacon
“Everything is connected. Connectivity is going to be the key to addressing these issues, like contaminants and climate change. They’re not just about contaminants on your plate. They’re not just about the ice depleting. They’re about the issue of humanity. What we do every day — whether you live in Mexico, the United States, Russia, China … can have a very negative impact on an entire way of life for an entire people far away from that source.”
- Sheila Watt-Cloutier
“I wake up in the morning asking myself what can I do today, how can I help the world today. I believe in what I do beyond a shadow of a doubt.I gave my word to this tree and to all the people that my feet would not touch the ground until I had done everything in my power to make the world aware of this problem and to stop the destruction.”
- Julia Butterfly Hill
“The problem of environmental children’s health is very urgent in Russia. Environmental situation now is the main factor, which determines young generation’s health… the volume of pollutant emissions in atmosphere and water grew and scale of ecological man-caused catastrophes increased. More than half of Russian territories, where 60-70 percent of the of population lives, have unsafe ecological situation.”
- Maria Cherkasova
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.