Earth Day 2025

Earth from space appearing like a "blue marble." — 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.

Bird's eye view of a dumpster fire at night. — Photo by Toms River Fire Dept on Flickr, Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Or this might describe how everything feels:

Person with Starbucks paper bag over their head, holding a globe in a plastic bag, with money in their hands and flying in the air around them. Fire in the background. — 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 of a girl with leafy green hair hugging planet Earth in a warm embrace. — 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 of a woman wearing a hijab and a female child planting a tree together, people in background. — 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!

Man in blue shirt bent over, picking up plastic and trash on a sandy beach. — 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

Tanzanians painting a poster with a tree about preserving the environment. — 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

Man in yellow coat, in the woods, looking up, admiring the trees. — 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 of a light-up globe on a black background. — 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!

April 22, 2021April 22, 2026

Earth Day Emergency

Illustration of a woman pregnant with Earth, Mother Nature — Image by Pandanna Imagen from Pixabay

Happy Earth Day!

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.”¹ It’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.

"Earth Day EveryDay" illustrated in soil colored letters on green flower background. — 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.

Graphic showing evolution of humans, but the most recent human is obese and using a bat to beat up the Earth. — 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.”²
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 documentaries³, 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

Footnotes:

April 22, 2019April 22, 2026

Happy Earth Day! But Every Day should be Earth Day…

Last updated on February 11, 2024.

Illustration of the Earth — Photo by Pixabay from Pexels.

Happy Earth Day!

Established in 1970, Earth Day celebrates 49 years this year. Next year will be a huge anniversary! The first Earth Day “led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first-of-their-kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Two years later congress passed the Clean Water Act.”⁴

April 22 marks Earth Day every year. It’s an important day to recognize our beautiful planet, but many of us believe Earth Day should be Every Day. We can make a difference every day. We can be the change. We can participate in daily practices that are small but add up when many of us do them! Follow my website to learn about changes you can make. I’ve provided some easy lists of simple things you can do to make an impact under Additional Resources below.

How do you celebrate Earth Day?

Earth Day is a day of education and support for protecting the environment, preventing pollution, preserving and protecting all species, and curbing climate change. The first thing you can do is commit to change. Pick one change and start there. Refuse plastic, start composting, and drive less. There are hundreds of things you can do! See Additional Resources below. I also have a recommended list of books.

The next thing you can do is educate yourself, and then others! Many people have no idea about plastic pollution in our oceans. I doubt everyone knows how many species are now classified as endangered. Many believe recycling is enough, but unfortunately, it isn’t. Some still believe climate change is a farce.

Once you’re aware of what’s going on, there’s no turning back. Your conscience will help guide you. Your knowledge will help you guide others.

Homeschool Lesson for Earth Day

There are so many ideas on the internet and Pinterest, especially for homeschool lessons on Earth Day, the environment and pollution, and endangered species. I wrote about a lesson on pollution and the environment that I did with my son a while back, but I also did special lessons with him about Earth Day. Children will understand why we want to protect our world by learning simple things that explain what the Earth is, what the Earth looks like, and all the animals, birds, ocean creatures, and humans that inhabit this great planet.

We did an easy puzzle of the Earth, coloring sheets of the planet, tracing activities, and counting games using the Earth as a theme. I found all of them as free printables on the internet.

We made a paper mache globe inspired by a blog post, when my son was just 3.⁵ Here’s what ours looked like:

My son painting our paper mache Earth. Photo by Marie Cullis.

The "completed" version of our paper mache Earth. — The “completed” version of our paper mache Earth. Photo by Marie Cullis.

We also read books about the environment and protecting our world, like the one below, which teaches that we need to take care of our Earth every day. You can find many other recommended books on my Children’s Book page.

Earth Day Every Day book cover

But even if you don’t have children, you can still help people understand when the topics come up in conversation. And those conversations will come up. Won’t you be excited to share your knowledge?

What else can you do?

So. Many. Things.

You can plant trees (maybe even hug them!), clean up litter (join the Litterati!), join an environmentally-conscience community organization, compost, refuse disposable products, grow a garden at home or in your community, take the bus or ride a bicycle to work, eat healthier foods that aren’t processed or sold in wasteful packaging, strive for zero waste, donate to back an educational project or school program, go minimalist, donate to help protect a species, etc. Just pick something that speaks to you and do it.

Love the Earth. Then help spread that love.

You can also subscribe to my blog to learn more with me as I continue my journey!

Additional Resources:

Article, “14 Ways To Go Plastic-Free With Food,” becauseturtleseatplasticbags.com.

List, “52 Ways to Invest in Our Planet,” earthday.org, accessed February 11, 2024.

Article, “100 Steps to a Plastic-Free Life,” myplasticfreelife.com, accessed February 11, 2024.

Footnotes: