By Matthew Desmond
The spring, summer, fall and winter all have holidays to celebrate such as Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. On these days, people take the time to celebrate with gatherings, food and presents. Even though these days are important, one holiday that often gets overlooked is Earth Day on April 22, 2022. Celebrating Earth Day not only give us a chance to appreciate our planet, but to care for it as well.
Having a holiday dedicated to our planet started in 1970. Before this year, citizens of the United States were not taking good care of the Earth. According to www.earthday.org, “In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles.” There were other problems such as “air pollution … oil spills … and the extinction of wildlife.” People were living in an unhealthy environment. That same year, Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin, witnessed the effects “of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.” Nelson, along with Pete McCloskey, a congressman who cared for the environment, and Denis Hayes, an activist, worked “to infuse the energy of student anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution.” They decided to hold “a teach-in on college campuses” on “April 22, a weekday falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.”
Many people were involved in this event, and soon, “They changed the name to Earth Day, which immediately sparked national media attention, and caught on across the country.” By 1990, Earth Day was celebrated around the world. It also inspired “the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit” a “global conference” that “brought together political leaders, diplomats, scientists, representatives of the media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 179 countries for a massive effort to focus on the impact of human socio-economic activities of the environment.”
There are many ways we can celebrate Earth Day. We can also celebrate by using this day to take care of the Earth. It is never too late to create change in the environment, and Earth Day is a great day to enact it. We can try to pick up litter we see on campus. We can be more conscious about what to throw out and what to recycle. We can try to go the entire day without using plastic.
Not only can we celebrate Earth Day by taking care of our home, but we can also spend the day appreciating our home. We can walk or ride a bike to the woods and take in the natural scenery. We can support local businesses by buying fresh produce and appreciating the plants that provide us with food every day.
Appreciating our home does not have to just involve being outside. We can use the arts to celebrate as well. We can get involved with local environmental organizations. Because we are at Dominican University, look no further than SustainDU, which, according to EngageDU hosted an Earth Week Mini Film Fest-One Earth One Film Festival. This event allowed DU “to watch in community a top documentary film on environmental justice, followed by a post-film discussion and action tables.” We can also read books that teach us about the environment. A good book to read is Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” which tells the story of how “When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s …Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina … must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones.” As we are living in the same time period as Lauren, this book might inspire us to take action against climate change.
Earth Day can be a day of celebration and action for everyone. We can take care of the Earth by cleaning up the planet and enjoying the environment. We can also invest time into the arts to learn how we can create change. Using this day as a day of action will benefit the world in the future.