Every Day is Earth Day!
How are you celebrating Earth Day?
The official Earth Day comes around just once a year, but if we borrow a bit of that energy to use every day, we can have a much larger impact as we strive for more sustainable and just systems around the globe.
We know the earth’s average temperature is warming, ice regions are melting, storms are getting more intense, and the coastlines are creeping inland. Climate change is undeniable. Earth Day, which started in the United States in 1970 as a way to bring attention to air and water pollution, has become an opportunity for education and activism around the world. And now, in addition to pollution, environmental topics across a wide range are recognized as critical to this planet’s survival.
More than a billion people now mark Earth Day in different ways. In-person and online events around the world invite people to learn, clean up litter, plant trees, march, advocate, and find ways of being part of the solution.
Perhaps the most important thing we can learn on Earth Day is that it’s going to take more than one day of action to make a difference. Change has to be habitual and sustainable. Drinking from a reusable water bottle just one day a year isn’t going to do much to reduce plastic waste, but using one every day can have an impact.
This Earth Day, brainstorm some ideas on things to do that last all year long. Can you plant a tree? Host a clothing swap so no one has to buy new clothes and contribute to a wasteful fashion industry? Create a habit of turning off devices that require energy when you’re not using them?
Try some of these activity ideas to make this Earth Day both fun and educational!
- Plant a seed
- Do recycled art
- Make a solar oven
- Write Earth Day slogans
- Organize a march in your school
- Research ways to compost at your school
- Read a biography about an environmental activist
- Learn about the carbon cycle
- Make a model of the water cycle
- Read a book about climate science
Try this hands-on climate activity in your classroom!
