By EMILY RUIZ GUTTMAN
Sheridan High School Student
Earth-related items in stores, new trees being planted, and even children bringing home school projects that are made from old plastic bottles: All of this can be seen on Earth Day. This awareness day has been celebrated for 49 years. According to The Earth Day Network, in 1969, Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea of a national day that brings awareness to environmental issues.
The next year the first official Earth Day began with 20 million Americans across the country participating in environmental rallies and protests, which helped pass many acts to protect our planet and created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 1990, Earth Day went global with 200 million people in 141 different countries bringing awareness to environmental issues and helping start recycling all around. This year, Earth Day will be celebrated on April 22.
Today, Earth Day is celebrated by more than 1 billion people worldwide, according to an article from history.com. This day is now the largest environmental movement in the world. Many organizations have started taking action on Earth Day as well. This includes an elephant sanctuary in Thailand planting 300 trees, cleanups in Japan, a festival in Italy, and events even here in Indiana.
At the Historic Military Park on Saturday, April 20, the Earth Day Indiana Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be music, local food vendors, exhibitors, activities for children and a 5K run/walk. This is the 30th anniversary of Earth Day Indiana Festival. You can find more information from Earth Day Indiana’s website, earthdayindiana.org. It is a great way to locally bring awareness to environmental issues and contribute to our communities.
While all of these big activities are great to do, you may be wondering what you can individually do on Earth Day. Planting a tree is an activity that is fun to do around spring time. Many stores, even Walmart, carry many different varieties of trees all at different, affordable prices. Although you’ll be putting in some money for the tree, you’ll be helping the environment and will get a new decoration in your yard to remember your good deed for years.
Walking or riding a bike is also beneficial. The less air pollution our cars and other polluting transportations give off, the better! Earth Day is a great day to give our planet just one day with a little less carbon dioxide. Do you plan on getting a drink sometime that day? Many drinks involve using a plastic straw, but plastic straws take about 200 years to decompose. Even then, they do not fully degrade, says the organization Get Green Now. If animals get ahold of these and mistake them for food, it can kill them. A great way to stop this is by using metal straws. They even come in different colors and can be personalized. Most stores nowadays carry metal straws in the utensils area. If reusing the same straw sounds like a pain, another alternative to plastic is paper straws. These are even sold in grocery stores for a price less than the plastic ones. The Science Learning Hub claims paper straws only take about five months to decompose.
A fun, easy way to celebrate and bring awareness of Earth Day is making crafts from things in you would normally throw away! You can decorate a can into a pencil holder, turn a Styrofoam cup into an animal decoration, or even use old newspaper strips to make a decorative bowl. There are also many more crafts you can find instructions for online.
As another Earth Day will go by, we can keep the earth clean for the future generations. Simple activities and bringing awareness not only teaches us the importance of our earth, but also passes on these lessons for the ones who will carry on these traditions to keep our planet clean.
Emily Ruiz Guttman is a senior at Sheridan High School and a member of National Honor Society.