I always write an article for Earth Day, and I didn’t want this year to be an exception, but…I’ve been super busy!
This month, I’ve been volunteering at the theater where my son is in a play. I’ve been helping paint the set, sorting fabric for costuming, and over the coming weekend, I’ll be ushering at all four shows. This week, I attended an out-of-town work conference. I’ve also taken my mother to the eye doctor, my dogs to the vet for their annual vaccines and exams, and attended 3 other plays (my son is a theater geek). I also work full-time!
Regardless, I couldn’t let Earth Day pass without writing something, even if it’s short and sweet. I would’ve made my Earth Day cookies, too, if I’d had time – but at least I wore my Earth earrings today and wished people a Happy Earth Day!
How You Can Celebrate Earth Day/Earth Month
Photo by OCG Saving The Ocean on Unsplash.
The most important thing you can do is to make every day Earth Day. Your daily actions count! They may be small and seemingly insignificant, but please understand that they are neither.
Here is a quick list of things you can do right now! (Though not exhaustive…)
Plant a tree – Arbor Day is just two days away, April 24th!
Plant a garden; April is the perfect time to start one. Bonus: Mix your compost into your garden soil.
Borrow items you don’t need often or only use once – ask a friend, neighbor, or visit the library.
Buy secondhand whenever you can. Reuse is the best recycling!
Volunteer with a local organization to help with trash clean-ups, tree planting, helping the unhoused, or assisting local wildlife organizations or animal shelters. Any environmental or humanitarian effort is going to make a difference! Just pick a cause and don’t second-guess yourself.
Don’t waste water; conserve when you can. This means reducing shower time, washing clothes on full or large loads, and avoiding watering the grass. Long term, you can consider installing a rain barrel for watering the garden and/or purchasing water-conserving/ENERGY STAR appliances when the time comes to replace them.
Photo courtesy of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Flickr, Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0).
Happy Earth Day!
I know things may not feel happy regarding the environment.
Here’s how things may feel to you right now: like an actual dumpster fire.
Photo by Toms River Fire Dept on Flickr, Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Or this might describe how everything feels:
Photo by fikry anshor on Unsplash.
But I’m asking you not to give up hope.
We have to keep trying.
“You dodge despair by not taking the deluge of problems full-bore. You focus on what can work, what can help, or what you can do, and you seize it, and then – you don’t let go…That’s what hope is: the belief that things can get better. The world belongs to people who don’t give up.” -Carl Safina, Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth’s Last Dinosaur
What can you do?
You can do any of the following at any time. You don’t need a special day to do them!
Love.
Back in my 2019 Earth Day article, I wrote: “Love the Earth. Then help spread that love.” Let’s spread love to every person and creature on Earth, too. We need it now more than ever!
Digital art by Gianluca from Pixabay.
Plant a tree.
Arbor Day is Friday, April 25, 2025. And if you can’t plant one on Arbor Day, go plant a tree any day!
“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is now.” -Proverb
Photo by Eyoel Kahssay on Unsplash.
Clean up trash.
Go to a trash clean-up event. If there isn’t one, pick an area where you like to hike or walk, and bring a trash bag with you. Bring some friends!
Photo by OCG Saving The Ocean on Unsplash.
Gather.
Get together with like-minded people. We all must come together and understand the big, important challenges when it comes to the environment.
“To be on the same page, you must first read from the same book.” —Joshua Fields Millburn
Photo by bradford zak on Unsplash.
Get out in nature.
Go for a walk or a hike. Bring your dog! Travel to the closest waterfall or lake and take in its beauty. Jog in the park, play on a playground, or ride a bike. It doesn’t matter where or how. Just get outside. Take in nature, breathe fresh air.
“I really believe that nature is everybody’s mother – and I think our disconnection from it is the reason for so many of the problems we have now. We haven’t experienced nature, neither its beauty nor its nourishment.” Alice Waters, Coming To My Senses
Photo by Etienne Swanepoel on Unsplash.
Learn.
We are the only species that intentionally harms their own habitat. We need to change that. We need to understand that pollution only destroys our health; that plastic production is growing exponentially while recycling is a lie; that biodiversity is essential for the health of our planet; that the climate crisis is here and present and has never been a hoax. There are so many solutions out there, but we cannot wait for governments and corporations to do the right thing, because they won’t. That’s why we all need to learn more about these topics.
Donate.
Giving feels good. Whether you’re donating money to your favorite cause or place of worship, donating used towels to the local pet shelter, donating time to a soup kitchen, planting trees with a local college, giving blood at a blood drive, or building houses with Habitat for Humanity, it all feels good!
“The surest path to contentment is generosity. Giving forces us to recognize all we possess and all we have to offer. It allows us to find fulfillment and purpose in helping others.” -Joshua Becker
Advocate.
Advocate for the environment. Tell lawmakers and corporations that you want change. The best way to inform them is to affect their bottom line and stop rampant consumerism. For example, if we all stopped buying plastic straws tomorrow and stopped patronizing restaurants that serve them, the production of plastic straws would drop dramatically. The same with fast fashion (aka cheap clothing), new cars, and cheap plastic toys.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
Use less plastic.
Avoid buying plastic items or items with excessive plastic packaging. There are so. many. alternatives!
Photo by Onno Blaauw on Unsplash.
“Each and every one of us holds the power to create change through the everyday choices that we make: what we choose to eat, what we purchase, how we get to work, who we vote for, which businesses we support. We all have a role to play. But, we all must begin to act and act now.” -Geoff Blackwell and Ruth Hobday, Human Nature: Planet Earth In Our Time, Twelve Photographers Address the Future of the Environment
Small things matter.
Sometimes we can spread love through food. I’m baking Earth Day cookies and bringing them to work to share with my coworkers tomorrow. Of course, I’ll save some for my son, too!
Leave me a comment below to let me know how you celebrated Earth Day! Thanks for reading, please share and subscribe!
This annual event is to show support for environmental protection. I’ve always said that Earth Day should be every day!
The Earth provides us with everything we need: air, water, plants, and animals. So why do we continue to strip the Earth of the resources it provides us humans?
We are the only species on the planet that destroys its own habitat. No other species does that. What is wrong with us?
Earth Day was established in 1970. But by 1976, plastic became the most widely used material in the world.
Plastic has become so embedded in our environment that explorers have found plastic in Antarctica and the Mariana Trench. Both are places that people rarely visit. There will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.
Archaeologists are finding that microplastics have contaminated archaeological remains. Scientists discovered microplastics in human breast milk and human lungs. The latest study suggests that the presence of microplastics may double the risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular problems among people with heart disease.
There are about 44,000 species now classified as critically endangered, and almost all of them are endangered because of human activity. Do we not treasure beautiful creatures that all contribute to a healthy planet? Do we not see the value in Earth’s biological diversity?
We burn fossil fuels at such a furious pace that we are altering the planet’s temperature. A warmer climate means escalating changes, such as stronger storms, sea level rise from melting ice, and potentially more diseases or pandemics.
I could go on, but it’s Earth Day, and I want to feel better about the state of things. Then I read this quote:
“One person worrying is desperation; a worrying group sows seeds of hope.” -Carl Safina1
And I remember that there are people who care. Many, many people who care. Not the corporations, nor the government representatives. But real people, like me and those of you reading this. We are the ones who can alter the course of those problems if we come together. We can spread hope.
Maybe we can worry less and band together, because together, we can do anything.
So say “Happy Earth Day” to someone today. Remind them that our home is our habitat and that we must protect it. Thank you for reading. Please share and subscribe.
Happy Earth Day! This is a day of recognition and a day to celebrate our beautiful home and habitat.
But as I always say, Earth Day should be every day.
This year, 2023, feels heavier, though. There’s so much going on and so much division that climate change and environmental issues often feel like back-burner issues.
It’s hard to think about buying plastic-free items and aiming for zero-waste when the price of groceries is so high.
While the average price of groceries rose 11.4% in the last year, it is expected to rise another 8.6% this year. But for some items, staples such as bread, eggs, milk, butter, and flour – the inflation rates are even higher. “The average price of white bread was about 22 percent higher in January than it was two years ago, and flour is up almost 21 percent. Butter cost 31 percent more.”2 Milk went up about 15% between 2021 and 2022.3 “The average price for all types of eggs ballooned 60% in 2022” because of an outbreak of bird flu.4
But some of the other costs have been simply to increase the wealth of corporations, CEOs, and shareholders. They are seeing record profits and receiving record dividends and bonuses. All at our expense. According to Oxfam, a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice, 62 new billionaires were created during the pandemic. They have exacerbated problems like labor shortages and supply chain disruptions to justify inflation. But the majority of food companies still managed to see record profits.5
Photo by me, April 8, 2023.
In the last 5 years, costs have increased overall by about twenty percent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics Consumer Price Index inflation calculator indicates that $100.00 in February 2018 has the same buying power of just over $120.00 in February 2023.6 Inflation has increased an average of 20% over the last 5 years. Most of us have not seen an increase in wages or benefits.
It’s difficult to see the value in cleaning up trash in one community when you see environmental racism and injustice in another.
My family participated in a Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful trash clean-up event in April 2023. It felt really good to go out and do something good. But all around our own city and in countries across the globe, there are people living amongst massive amounts of trash, toxic waste sites, and pollution. Why aren’t we doing more to help?
I remind myself that many of us are trying. Unfortunately, the people with the most wealth are often the same people exploiting those that have the least. And climate change affects some of the poorest communities in the world even though they have the smallest carbon footprint.
We just have to keep getting out there and doing what we can. Keep trying, learning, and especially voting!
It’s easy to shift your focus away from climate change when you are worried about the safety of your child at school.
I really don’t like to write about political issues on my website (other than things related to the environment and climate change, but those really shouldn’t be political issues, anyway). But this is a real fear for many parents, myself included. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children in the U.S.
The March 2023 Nashville school shooting, tragic and sad, should never have happened. The same week as that shooting, my son’s school in Chattanooga was put on a “secure hold” because of an intruder. The school seemed to have handled it swiftly and correctly, but they didn’t notify the parents until after the whole incident was over. The intruder was unarmed, but I nevertheless cried out of fear. I remain fearful every day I bring him to school. This daily anxiety is taking its toll.
How am I supposed to worry about climate change right now, when I’m worried about my child surviving the day?
Photo by Fateme Alaie on Unsplash.
The answer is that I have to at least try.
“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is now.” -Proverb
We all have to try.
Together.
We can do better.
“I don’t think we want to just scrape by as a species, surviving with a degraded natural world, suffering ecosystem and societal collapse, and mass human suffering on a scale that dwarfs anything we’ve experienced as a species. I think we all want to see what we’re capable of, and make this world of ours the best it can be.” -Rob Stewart7
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.
We must keep learning.
“When you know better, you do better.” -Maya Angelou
We have to do the right things, even when our leaders don’t.
“Choose what is right, not what is easy.” -Yoda
We have to give what we can, whether that’s time, energy, or money.
“The surest path to contentment is generosity. Giving forces us to recognize all we possess and all we have to offer. It allows us to find fulfillment and purpose in helping others.” -Joshua Becker, becomingminimalist.com
We must teach our children to do better than we have.
“I’m still convinced it’s a good old world, really, but I do think we have screwed it up. It’s highly obvious with the ocean filling with plastic; it didn’t get there by itself. Thinking that climate change is a hoax is another screw-up, one that I hope we can still fix for our children and our children’s children.” -Paul McCartney8
We need to value the people and the environment around us. Let’s help each other.
“Fighting for something other than your own wealth, working for someone else’s happiness, saving species, pulling people out of poverty, conserving instead of wasting – this is what really matters.” -Rob Stewart9
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash.
I leave you with a heavy heart this Earth Day. But I think the best thing we can do to celebrate today is to get outdoors and be in nature. Spend time taking in the elements and the beauty of nature. Hug a tree. Hug the person next to you. Spread kindness and love.
“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” -Albert Einstein
Hope. Hope is what I want to leave my child someday. Hope for humanity and hope that we will preserve our own habitat.
Even though it’s Earth Day, I’m struggling with hope lately. I’ve been reading too many books and watching too many documentaries about the state of our planet. I don’t just mean plastic pollution or climate change, either. I mean the sum total of all of the things we are doing to destroy our own habitat. We don’t need to save the planet, we need to save the living creatures on the planet – including the humans!
“The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.” -David Attenborough
Water
My latest research and upcoming article is Part 2 of What’s In Your Water? about all of the contaminants in our water, and the consequences on our health. That alone has left me feeling sad, as the water we use – already limited in many parts of our country and across the globe – is polluted. Yet we waste water, allow corporations to dump toxins into it, and have a general sense of apathy toward water.
Water is everything. We cannot survive without it.
Ocean
I recently watched the new documentary, Fin, about shark finning and fishing. We are killing 1 million sharks per year for fins, food, and fun. At that rate, it will not take long to completely delete sharks from the ocean. Here’s the trailer:
Without sharks, the ocean will fall out of balance. They are apex predators and play an important role in maintaining the species below them in the food chain. They serve as an indicator of ocean health. Add to that the decimation of the coral reefs, and the ocean will completely change. The ocean covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, produces over 50% of the world’s oxygen, and absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide. The ocean regulates climate and weather patterns.
“No water, no life. No blue, no green.” – Dr. Sylvia Earle
Image by joakant from Pixabay
Everything Else
We cannot continue the mass destruction of rainforests, which basically serve as the Earth’s lungs. We are depleting all of the fossil fuels that took millions of years to form. We have more waste than our globe has room to store. And we are causing the extinction of many species every single day.
“Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it we can destroy the only planet we have?” – Jane Goodall
We are poisoning our water, our food, our animals, our children! Chemicals, pollutants, and toxins enter our lives daily and we should not accept this as normal. We all need to be active in conservation on all fronts, not just today, and not just for a short time. This is something we must do going forward, every day. As the saying goes, there is no Planet B.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Keep Trying
“Conservation is the preservation of life on earth, and that, above all else, is worth fighting for.” -Rob Stewart
I continue to try and share information with others, to inform, educate, and enlighten. Today, to celebrate Earth Day, I am participating in the clean-up of a local creek in an underserved neighborhood. I want it to make a difference. I would like it to inspire others to not give up. Most of all, I want it to show my child that we all have to hang on to hope – through action, not wishing. But first I’ve got to keep my own hope alive.
Each year on April 22, we celebrate Earth Day. As the Earth Day organization website notes, “Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes.”5It’s great that we have this day to acknowledge our challenges.
But as I and that organization always say, Earth Day needs to be every day.
Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash
We are in near peril now. If you really look at the worldwide problems coming from climate change, everything is changing and causing drastic consequences to humans and wildlife. The Earth Day website acknowledges the frustration of many:
“As the awareness of our climate crisis grows, so does civil society mobilization, which is reaching a fever pitch across the globe today. Disillusioned by the low level of ambition following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and frustrated with international environmental lethargy, citizens of the world are rising up to demand far greater action for our planet and its people.”
Photo by ArtHouse Studio from Pexels
If COVID-19 has taught me anything, it’s that people are reactive to the problems in their direct line of sight and apathetic to the problems in their periphery. But we have to do better. We can’t stay oblivious to these problems, because we will perish.
We need to do more, every day.
‘Save the Planet’ and ‘Protect the Earth’ are wonderful slogans, but we are way past slogans. We need action. We need to change our daily behaviors. And we have a limited amount of time to make changes before it’s too late.
We are destroying our own habitat.
Image by David MAITRE from Pixabay
We are not just destroying the habitats of at-risk species half a world away, we are destroying the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we farm. We are destroying our own habitat! The Earth is our home but if we don’t take drastic action the irreversible results of our destructive behavior will lead to our extinction. Nature will heal itself and the Earth will go on without us.
Earth Day is Now an Emergency
Human-caused planetary changes are happening before our eyes. The temperature of the air and the oceans are rising, the glaciers and ice sheets are melting, and the sea is rising. We are cutting down rainforests, which essentially cleanse the entire planet’s air. We are witnessing extremes in weather and drought and wildfire. Coral reefs are expiring. We are watching endangered species’ classifications move from critically endangered to extinct.
“One study estimates it would take 5 Earths to support the human population if everyone’s consumption patterns were similar to the average American.”9
Photo by Jong Marshes on Unsplash
We have a limited amount of time to turn it around. I encourage you to read up on the issues, watch documentaries10, and follow or join organizations dedicated to changing human actions so that you can learn all you can.
Make changes in your own life and reduce overconsumption where you can. If you’re able to install solar panels, new windows in your home, or purchase an electric car, I encourage you! Many of those larger changes are sometimes cost-prohibitive, so do what you can. We need to pressure companies and the government to normalize renewable energy items. This will make them more accessible and attainable. If we can greatly reduce our overall consumption levels, that will have a huge effect and positively alter the future. And maybe we can save ourselves.
Thank you for reading, and please subscribe and share!
“Climate change is the single greatest threat to a sustainable future but, at the same time, addressing the climate challenge presents a golden opportunity to promote prosperity, security and a brighter future for all.” -Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General, United Nations
Happy Earth Day! Today marks the 50th year of Earth Day. I’ve got several articles I’m working on right now, but I couldn’t let this day pass without writing a quick post to honor this day!
I recently read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, who is often credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Carson “stirred an awakening of public environmental consciousness,” wrote her biographer, Linda Lear. By 1970, Earth Day was established. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970. Additional important legislation followed, such as the Clean Air Act in 1963, the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970, the Clean Water Act in 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
50 Years!
Sadly, this year there will be no great gathering to observe this day nor its anniversary because of COVID-19.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t honor this day anyway! From Earth Day’s official website: “While Earth Day may be going digital, our goal remains the same: to mobilize the world to take the most meaningful actions to make a difference.”11 They’re asking everyone to participate in 24 hours of global digital mobilization.
“While the coronavirus may force us to keep our distance, it will not force us to keep our voices down. The only thing that will change the world is a bold and unified demand for a new way forward.” -earthday.org12
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay.
Earth Day Should Be Every Day
Let’s remember that Earth Day is just one day of celebration and action. Every day should be Earth Day! We should be thinking about the changes we can make – from the small daily changes to the large conservation efforts we need to put forth. I know all of the environmental problems can seem overwhelming and people don’t always know where or how to start. I want to tell you that just by thinking about these subjects, you are already doing something. Congrats!
Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels.
The world is in our hands. Remember, it’s the Earth we are honoring today, but it’s humankind that we are trying to save. The Earth will go on without us someday.
There are so many things you can do. Stay informed, and educate yourself on environmental problems. Subscribe to this website, and many others like it! You can start with these How To Quick Start Guides and my Resources page, in which you’ll find many resources, individuals, and organizations that have lots of information. Just start. Don’t worry about being perfect. And if you need help, feel free to leave me a comment below!
I also made Earth Cookies and shared my method here.
