Every April 22nd, the world celebrates Earth Day. For over 50 years, the event has been celebrated to demonstrate support for environmental protection and the planet’s future. Communities worldwide commemorated the planet through fundraisers, community drives and much more.
Celebrated annually since 1970, Earth Day has grown from an event in the United States totaling 20 million protestors to a worldwide holiday with over a billion people partaking. Though not a federal holiday in the United States, its significance is immense.
Earth Day matters because “We have to keep the Earth clean for our future generations,” according to sophomore Amirah Lavington.
So, the question is, what can be done to preserve and improve the planet’s health?
To do this, complex solutions must be implemented, and the everyday person needs to make a difference. Long term-solutions are more complicated to execute than simple solutions, but in the meantime, the environmental crisis can be resolved by taking rudimentary action.
For a long-term environmental solution, “We need to invest more money into public transit because cars cause a lot of pollution. We also need to make oil companies more accountable, [since] they dump gallons of oil into the ocean,” junior Aidan Barbosa expounded.
In addition to such long-term solutions, there are many things that can be done on a basic level in the fight for our environment, all of which can easily be achieved day to day. Making simple adjustments to one’s daily lifestyle, such as walking to somewhere nearby instead of driving, can make a great difference on the environment.
“Recycling, reusing materials and being gas efficient are all simple ways to improve the environment,” senior Sravanth Saladi mentioned.
When fixing the environment, understanding the issues challenging its health is crucial, because only then can communities work together to fix it.
“Some factors that threaten our environment are CO2 emissions from factories, farming, general waste and plastic consumption,” sophomore Annie Yuan asserted.
Earth Day’s goal is to emphasize the importance of protecting the Earth and to highlight the factors that threaten its health. With so many people participating and working to heal the Earth, there is no doubt that Earth Day’s purpose has been fulfilled.
“[Earth Day] does a great job refocusing and reminding people of how fragile and valuable our planet is. Simply drawing attention to these issues can be impactful. In terms of being a good day to celebrate and something to remind everyone of the importance of taking care of our planet, it is successful,” sophomore Nikhil Maddirala claimed.
Earth Day is globally celebrated by 193 countries and campaigned by more than a billion participants annually, a significant increase in the holiday’s popularity since 1970. Its theme changes every year; this year, it is Planet vs. Plastics.
The campaign’s purpose is to increase health awareness, demand change and innovate solutions. Furthermore, it aims to decrease plastic production by 60% by 2040. With such campaigns, the earthday.org foundation advocates for action toward an improved planet.
Earth Day is an important holiday with an influential 54-year history. In a constantly evolving world, its role of reminding everyone how Earth demands preservation and of the issues it faces is more relevant than ever. There is only one Earth, so creating a better and healthier world for tomorrow should be today’s top priority. Earth Day has been invaluable in the struggle for a better environment, where every effort, big or small, makes a difference.