Earth Day: the Anniversary of the Forgotten One

Earth day is celebrated on April 22th . Earth day started slowly in the year 1970 when it was created by the environmentalist movement. On the first official earth day on april 22th 1970, the US senator Gaylord Nelson was one of the first to encourage students to create projects that would have the effect of waking-up the public’s conscience to the serious problems earth is now encountering.

Earth day celebration has been slowly gaining momentum but we can seriously ask ourselves if the damages done to earth by pollution are not acting faster than our reactions. Today, Earth Day is celebrated in over 184 countries by 500 millions worldwide. Throughout the years, earth day has become one of the most important environmental celebration of the year.

What can a person do to celebrate earth day in a significant way? There are so many ways to start making a difference by slowing down pollution and waste of earth’s resources. The first way is to really become aware of the menace that is hanging above earth’s natural resources. Earth’s water, vegetation and animals and air is being polluted and wasted at an accelerated rate. Everyone should get the proper information on pollution, toxic gas emissions, endangered animal and plant species, etc, etc by reading the proper books and visiting web sites dedicated to earth’s preservation.

Earth day can also be celebrated by taking a moment to analyse and review the daily habits we have that can cause damage to nature. Taking small actions like walking or taking a bike instead of using the car for small distances are definitely a step in the right direction. Furthermore, one’s health will greatly benefit from being more active physically.

Earth day is also the ideal occasion to reconsider our wasting habits. Such small measures as not letting the water run uselessly or cleaning the dishes or doing the laundry only when the load is full are all measures that will make a difference in the long run. A very important step is protecting the earth’s resources is to limit our consumption of energy sources. It is a complete non-sense to see high-class stores that are running their air-conditioning systems at full capacities while their front doors are widely opened. Although this tactic is to attract more customers, it should be discouraged by clients bringing their business somewhere else.

As a family doctor, I receive loads of unsolicited mail and advertisement weekly. I have asked my secretary to contact all these magazines and unsolicited mail senders to stop sending me such material that I do not read anyway. The process has proved very long and tedious but it finally paid off and I am now very proud to say we have at least saved one forest by just taking this simple action.

Earth day can be celebrated by many more actions such as planting a tree, giving a contribution to a environmental organism, checking to make sure your government in place is taking solid action to control pollution, etc

Another very important step in earth day celebration is to visit web sites dedicated to saving the earth and participating in their content.