I vividly remember the first time I acknowledged and celebrated Earth Day. It was 8th grade Science class. I won’t age myself by mentioning the year, but let’s just say Earth Day had already been around for a few years. April 22, 1970, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson created the very first Earth Day. His motivation for raising awareness about our environment was spurred by a number of events, and later lead to national legislation of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.
So, back to 8th grade Science class, we had to commit to a single act that we were willing to do on a daily basis to help save the Earth. Then, we had to take that idea, put it on a t-shirt to wear on Earth Day to show our fellow classmates our commitment to save Mother Earth, in hopes of encouraging them to do the same. Back in the ‘80’s, the Ozone Depletion was a big environmental topic. So, here it is the 1980’s (yes, I realize I just dated myself), the decade of big hair and aerosol hairspray. Such irony. Even more ironic, I was a big-haired, teased out, over-hairsprayed teenager, but my commitment was to save the ozone by eliminating the use of aerosol cans. I had painted the planet Earth and a flame-spraying aerosol can on my t-shirt with the words, “Learn not to Burn.” Despite my large amount of aerosol-coated, teased hair, I was trying to promote education on burning up our ozone layer. I later ditched the hairspray, got “the perm,” and switched to mousse.
Since then, I have been more aware of plastic water bottles, coffee pods, and other modern world conveniences that are extremely harmful to our marine life, overfilling our landfills, and polluting the planet. The overuse of plastic and lack of recycling became so real to me while on a summer vacation one year. We were finally making a dream come true by visiting a place on our bucket list. We couldn’t be more excited or ready to get to the beach. Walking barefoot through the sand, we reached the shore only to find a beach littered with plastic. So much plastic everywhere! Water bottles, bottle caps, juice bottles, plastic grocery bags. I couldn’t believe how much of our waste had ended up in our ocean. It was disheartening, disappointing, and disgusting all at the same time. It became very real that a bottle of water purchased at the local corner store would eventually end up in our ocean or landfill, oozing harmful chemicals, and endangering wildlife and human life.
So, this Earth Day, put down your aerosol hairspray, invest in a reusable water bottle, and go plant a tree. Don’t forget to pick up the trash around you, too.
