Each year, April 22 marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970 known as Earth Day. This idea of a national Earth Day to focus on the environment came to founder Gaylord Nelson (US Senator from Wisconsin) after witnessing the 1969 horrific oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Nelson realized he could infuse the energy of the anti-war movement at the time to emerge public consciousness about pollution, while forcing environmental protection onto the national political agenda.
On this special day in 1970, there were close to 20 million Americans went out in the streets and parks to demonstrate for a healthy yet sustainable environment in rallies from coast to coast. These rallies consisted of raising public consciousness on oil spills, polluting factories, power plants, freeways, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife.
Since 1970, Earth Day has reached its current status as the largest secular observance in the world with more than a billion people celebrating it every year. April 22 represents a day of action that changes human behaviour and provokes policy changes across this beautiful planet.
In 2016, the fight for a clean environment continues with an increasing urgency because of the constant threats of climate change that are becoming worse at an exponential rate. The 46th year of the movement continues to inspire, challenge ideas, ignite passion and motivate people to action. Earth Day is bigger than attending a rally and taking a stand; it’s about making big stuff happen by getting involved in the cause.
It’s our time as youth to help our planet by taking the momentum from the Paris Climate Summit and building upon it. It should not be a task but a fun goal in planting 7.8 billion trees for the Earth. We need to come together to divest fossil fuels as well as creating 100 percent renewable cities for all us to happily breathe in. It’s time for us to start now and to never stop taking eco-friendly actions in our lives.
The best way to get involved right now is to utilize the perks of the greatest search engine ever, Google. The company has launched a special map in honour of Earth Day where there is a selection of planned events in different countries to become involved with. Technology has come this far to allow us to take place within local Earth Day events and it’s our job to take advantage of this in order to help in the process of a cleaner planet.
Giving back to Earth Day is not necessarily required to be through a form of donation for environmental groups. It can be simple as going out in your community or rallying neighbours together to do a garbage clean-up and even plant a few trees in order to showcase your motivation to take action on this special day.
I personally have a habit of taking up a creative initiative for Earth Day each year and this year I decided to plant some milkweed in my family’s garden in order to do my part in helping to save the Monarch butterflies. I hope that by next spring, the plants survive and are able to help revive some of the population for the Monarch butterfly in my area.
Another great way to look at Earth Day is to not just picture it as a one-time event, but to take it as a way of life. The best way to go about this is to reduce the use of unnecessary lighting around the house, forms of useless consumption of water and recycling items properly in order to ensure a nurtured planet. It’s quite simple to give back and the Earth Day Network does a phenomenal job of this by providing millions of opportunities to people everywhere as mobilization is the most effective vehicle to build a healthy, sustainable environment, address climate change, and protect Earth for future generations.
It’s our time as youth to take action and spread the word for others to take action in this year’s 46th Earth Day. I urge you to not only let others know through social media, but take time out of your day to take part in stewardship in your very own community because our planet needs your help!
