Earth Day
A Little Background
Starting on April 22nd, 1970 the first ever Earth Day was celebrated. In a time of poor environmental conditions the United States was stumped on what to do to counter the increasing pollution. The environment wasn’t such a hot topic back then and getting people to participate in eco-friendly activities was a worry, so what did they do? Well, Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson believed the only way to garner both politics and media’s attention was to create a whole holiday dedicated to our special planet to get the word out that our Earth is in danger.
Why Should You Care?
The following question is no trick question, but instead serves to place an honest thought into your head. Do you call Earth your home? If you answered yes than there is your reason to care right there. We care because we all have a stake in our planet. Because if our planet is destroyed so is all of humanity. Earth is our shelter that protects us and so we must return the favor. You would never burn down the home you sleep in with your family, so why do we find it ok to let our shared home burn to the ground. We might not all be heroes, but Earth Day is an opportunity for everyone to be a firefighter, to protect our home and the home of others. To not only protect today, but the future for generations and generations to come.
So What Can You Do?
Now with the holiday having been celebrated for over 50+ years and having an estimated 1 billion participates from 193 countries the question is what can you do? As mentioned above the choices are unlimited but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Limit yourself to no screen time, or a small time if you can’t do none
- Go for a walk, hike, or run to embrace Colorado’s beauty
- Clean up your local park trail
- Participate in GTFO: Get the Filter Out, a cigarette butt clean-up, with a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship from DoSomething
Or go explore some of your ACC’s Service Learning Center great ideas:
- Check out the official Earth Day’s webpage for a three-day plan to “Restore Our Earth”
- Volunteer at some local events around the Denver area, safely with family, friends, co-workers, neighbors
- Join a free virtual webinar, Seeing Differently: The Art of Communicating Climate Change, sponsored in part by Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Denver 7’s Meteorologist Mike Nelson
- Plant a tree, do some gardening, or help others in their yards, learning about local plants
- Spot the International Space Station at about 250 miles above Earth or find out what NASA has taught us about our planet and climate change
- Learn about climate justice and animal rights by going vegan for Earth Day
- Find out what you can do to conserve wildlife from various organizations like World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, Earth Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council, etc.
- Join local organizations’ events by typing in “local earth day 2021 events” into Google
- Create your own fun and educational environmental event