This year Earth Day marks a couple of milestone birthdays: 40 years since the original US Earth Day in 1970 and 20 years since the first International Earth Day in 1990. Organized as a series of teach-ins by a small group of educators and environmentalists, the 1970 Earth Day was envisioned as a grass-roots response to the environmental crisis of the day, inspired by the impact of and lack of government action in response to an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara CA. Planners aspired to attract crowds as large and passionate as those protesting the war then being waged in Viet Nam to make themselves heard on the issue of the environment. From their actions, 20 million demonstrators observed the first Earth Day and urged leaders and citizens to make the changes necessary to preserve the health of the planet. Since that time Earth Day has grown to become an international event, marked in 141 different countries in 1990 to where it is today, about to be celebrated by a billion people in over 190 countries and coinciding with the World People’s Conference on Climate Change.

According to Gaylor Nelson, the founder of the original Earth Day: “Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.”

Inspired by the idea that an international movement could start from the actions of a few individuals, I started a list of things my family could do to celebrate Earth Day’s 40^th birthday:

· Plant something. Planting vegetation, particularly trees, helps to reduce greenhouse gases and improves the quality of the air we breathe.

· Get outside. Many reasons are speculated as to why April 22^nd was chosen as the date for Earth Day. Nelson offers that among them was it was late enough in the spring for good weather. Take advantage of the sunshine and warmer air to get out and enjoy the Earth. Whether it’s gardening, going for a walk or playing out of doors, remind yourself why the environment is worth protecting.

· Start a lifestyle change. Earth Day is a great day to start that resolution you keep putting off, such as bringing that travel mug to work, making a point of not buying anything with excess packaging, or mine: stocking my trunk with reusable shopping bags for those spontaneous trips to the store.

· Leave the car at home. Automobile travel is among the biggest contributors there is to climate change that we have direct control over. Earth Day is a great day to ride a bike to work, take the bus or carpool with a friend.

· Get rid of litter. My son recently did a science project on biodegradation inspired by the amount of trash the melting snow revealed in our local park. Recognizing that little of the garbage we saw would be properly recycled, his Earth Day project is for us to go back with some bags and gloves to clean the place up.

· Cook an Earth Day meal. Make up a dinner sourced from local, organic growers to experience what healthy, low environmental impact eating tastes like.

What are you planning to do to celebrate Earth Day? Tell me your ideas!

Happy Birthday, Earth Day!

[written by Guest Blogger Jaipaul Massey-Singh]

Bio: For Jaipaul, reviewing and debunking the claims of “green” products is a natural extension of his quest to create a more environmentally responsible home along with his wife and 6 year-old son. Jaipaul brings several perspectives to our Blog; as a consultant to companies seeking environmental certification, as a community leader in green issues and as a presenter of the An Inconvenient Truth presentation on global climate change.

Tags: Climate Change, Environment, Grass roots

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