Earth Day began in 1970 with the help of Senator Gaylord Nelson. Nelson announced Earth Day at a conference in Seattle in the Fall of 1969. People responded with great enthusiasm. Since then Earth Day has grown into a global event. Billions of people celebrate it and explore all the possible ways they can help contribute to a cleaner environment. All this is uplifting and a good thing to do but shouldn’t Earth Day be everyday? We should all thing about the effects we have on the Earth as we consume food, drive to work, and use materials for learning in our schools. Hopefully, in the future students would be using computers to write instead of paper products.
On Earth Day I promise to make less copies, re-use the copies I do make and have students create their own reading logs on paper they already have in their notebooks. I think that Earth Day is extremely important to celebrate, reflect and discuss. This summer I plan on growing a vegetable garden and sharing the vegetables I grow with my family. To protect our Earth today and in the future, I also promise to recycle more, drive less, take the light-rail to my work downtown and grow my own food. I shall not waste the food I am given as that food took energy to grow. I will be thankful for the resources I am given but I shall not be wasteful of it. I will buy food that is packed in recycled paper products. I will not throw away any of my used clothing but instead give it away to goodwill for others to use. Earth Day is an important day for us all!
As a naturalist, I believe that our Earth is a precious a delicate planet that needs to be protected. She gives us water, light, rich soil to grow our crops, and resources to use for energy. I wonder why our Earth is being polluted at this time in Earth’s history. Before the 19th century earlier civilizations did not need to create pollution to survive so why do we? Perhaps we as a people need to think simpler and live a simple life. After all happiness does not come from the things we possess but the people we have in our lives.
