Earth Day – The Largest Secular Holiday in the World

A Little History

Earth Day is not just about celebrating our home planet for one day and planting trees. It’s a day to learn how to bring about environmental awareness to change human behavior and provoke policy changes. Started by a group of Columbia University students in late 1969, it was first celebrated on March 21 in 1970 to coincide with the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. Earth Day is now observed on April 22 in more than 193 countries, coordinated by the Earth Day Network.

Earth Day is important because it reminds people to think about human action and sustaining the environment we live in. There is clear scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainably, and that collective efforts are needed to return human use of natural resources to sustainable limits. When it comes to our planet, one person really can make a difference. There are many things you can do to impact environmental change.

 

What Can You Do?

Living by the 3Rs is a great start. The 3Rs stand for reduce, reuse, and recycle. These three actions mean people should buy less, reuse more, and recycle products that are no longer useful. It’s a very easy practice to follow and can even reduce your household budget, leaving you with a little more green in your pocket.

Another option is reduce your carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide, and calculated for the time period of a year. One way to reduce your carbon footprint is to carpool to work or take mass transit, if that is an option for you. However, there are other ways to reduce greenhouse gases, including purchasing locally sourced foods and using solar power in place of oil, gas, or coal.

 

Free Downloads

If you want to learn more about what you can do to impact environmental change, check out our free download Give Back to the Planet. We also just added Going Green at Home. These should provide lots of tips and tricks on all the things one person can do to really make a difference. Download them today and you might even find a surprise inside!