Since 1970, the world has celebrated Earth Day on April 22nd. Originally Earth Day was set up by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson when he realize that something needed to be done to help protect our earth from damage we cause. He organized what he called a “teach in” along with Congressman Pete McCloskey and Denis Hayes to help bring awareness to the people of the world that unless something was done, our earth would continue to become polluted.
Since 1970, people all over the world have been using April 22nd as a day to remind everyone about Senator Nelson’s ideas and to expand on them to improve the quality of our earth. Towns set up events to help clean up community areas. Gardeners use the day to plant seeds and prune trees. It is a wonderful day to just be outside and enjoy the fresh air.
If you are not really an outdoorsy person, you can still do some things from the inside to help, too. How about installing a low flow shower head? You could greatly reduce your water use by doing something like that. You could also try using less paper towels. You might think, ‘Hey, what’s the big deal? They are paper. They are biodegradable.’ Sure they are, but they still need to be manufactured by machinery that uses up our resources and they still fill up landfills just the same. Try using a rag or towel that can be laundered instead.
You can also walk around the house and unplug all those cords that are not being used. Even cords that are not powering anything can drain electricity unnecessarily. Turn off lights whenever you leave the room. It’s really the little things that matter the most. Make Earth Day a great jumping off point for you to change your ways and make our world a little bit greener.
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