By Vivien Chen
Today is Earth Day, an annual day to celebrate our planet and help the environment. Earth Day takes place every year on April 22, with the first Earth Day being celebrated in 1970. People from all over the world come together to spread awareness and participate in activities to improve the environment.
Earth Day was started by Senator Gaylord Nelson, the junior senator from Wisconsin. He wanted to spread more awareness about the environment to college students. He teamed up with a young activist called Denis Hayes to organize events and teach-ins for college campuses. They chose April 22 because it was a date between spring break and finals where they could get a lot of student participation.
In 1990, Earth Day became a global event, with more than 200 million people in countries all over the world participating. It boosted worldwide recycling efforts and helped pave the way for the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992. President Bill Clinton also awarded Senator Nelson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work as the founder of Earth Day.
Human activities like deforestation, burning fossil fuels, and pollution can disrupt and hurt the environment. Some of the many consequences of these actions are the endangerment of wildlife and global warming. Earth Day is an opportunity to change our everyday behaviors and advocate for policy changes, so that we can save our environment before it’s too late.
Here are some ways you can take part in the fight for our planet:
- Become an Earth Day member here to donate and support the Earth Day foundation.
- Sign one or more petitions here to encourage policy changes that will help the environment, such as managing plastic waste and stopping mass deforestation.
- Email your local congressman for policy changes.
- Watch this Earth Day livestream to learn about ecological problems around the world and how to take action.
- Check out https://www.earthday.org/ to find a project or activity that interests you. There are many options ranging from trash cleanups to planting trees.
- Take a quiz here to test your knowledge on the environment and our planet!
- Help organize an event at your school to promote awareness and activism.
- Stay educated with online resources, articles, and books.
- Change your daily habits: pay attention to your hot water usage, recycle, turn off the lights when you’re not in the room, and more! This is one of the best ways you can take action.
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